Waiting Game: Too early to know extent of Nichols’ injury

Waiting Game: Too early to know extent of Nichols’ injury

WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg Blue Bombers lost quarterback Matt Nichols with what appears to be a right (throwing) hand injury in the first half of Friday’s contest with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Nichols was sent to the sidelines with what appeared to be a right hand injury when the second half began and was replaced by backup Dominique Davis. Nichols was pressured numerous times in the first half and was seen favouring his hand after two separate fumbles where he was hit in the pocket.

Before leaving the contest, Nichols was good on 14 of 18 passes for 158 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

There was no immediate update on Nichols but in his weekly post-game chat with CJOB’s Bob Irving, O’Shea said he would not rule out Nichols for next week’s contest with the BC Lions until he got more details on the extent of the injury.

“We’ll see. We will give him as much time as he needs,” O’Shea told Irving. When asked if he would rule count Nichols as doutbful for next week, the Bombers head coach said, “no I don’t even have all the information at this point.”

O’Shea expanded in his general post-game news conference but did not shed any additional light on the injury itself.

“He’s in seeing the docs right now. We’ll get him checked out again tomorrow and see how he wakes up,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea of Nichols. “I don’t think I’ve given an (injury) update post-game on anybody ever.”

Before leaving Friday’s contest, Matt Nichols was good on 14 of 18 passes for 158 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

The Bombers are holding their breath and holding out hope that if Nichols is going to miss time, it isn’t for the long haul. The club is trying to secure a home playoff date and still has an outside chance of catching the Calgary Stampeders for first place in the division.

“This guy loves this team and loves his teammates and puts it out there every week. To see a guy like that go down, it’s tough. I’m hoping it’s not a long-term thing,” RB Andrew Harris told BlueBombers.com.

“That’s our guy,” added Chris Randle when asked about Nichols. “We hope it’s not serious. We believe in Dom. We believe we can still be really, really effective as a team and we’ll go from there.”

– With files from BlueBombers.com

Get all the top stories from across the league delivered to your inbox.